A Great New Year; Let The Race Begin

Max:I never saw a car like that in my life!
Prof. Fate: Yes, and you never will again, either. Give me
the bomb!--The Great Race (1965)

Blake Edward's film The Great Race was based on a real motorsports event.
The original "Great Race" took place in 1908 when automobiles from
different countries raced 22,000 miles around the world from New York's
Times Square to Paris, France. In 2006, the 24th annual Great Race features
automobiles manufactured in '61 or earlier in a coast-to-coast rally across
the back roads of America, from Pennsylvania to California. The finish line
is in downtown San Rafael on the site where George Lucas filmed his '73
hit movie American Graffiti. Mary and I are participating in the '06 event
driving a '53 Packard Clipper and invite Shutterbug readers to visit with
us during any of the 40 stops the event makes during the 2000-mile trek. To
see if the '06 Great Race will be visiting your town, visit www.greatrace.com,
which is regularly updated with event information.

Nature Is Her Studio
Unlike every other Bio section in every other website featured in Web Profiles,
Holly Gordon's includes a touching video clip telling how she became a
full-time nature photographer after the death of her husband. Her cleverly designed
site (www.hollygordonphotographer.com)
includes slide shows in Photo Essays and a Portfolio containing images from
Antarctica to Easter Island. Clicking on any collection opens a small window
with tiny thumbnails. Dragging your mouse across the thumbs changes the larger
images at the top of the window, but I wish that window was bigger and the images
not so compressed so we could better appreciate Gordon's artistry.

Even though the window is small, she manages to cram in occasional titles. Her
Colorado Impressions collection is interesting because of its focus on wildflowers,
instead of the famous Rockies and over-photographed subject matter such as the
Maroon Bells near Aspen. My favorite image is "Aspen and Columbine"
where she manages to capture the delicate state flower in the foreground and
our trademark aspen trees in the background. There's also some wonderful
butterfly pictures in the NatureNotes section featuring images from her 4x6
note cards. Gordon likes to say that she "speaks for nature" and
she does so in a very eloquent way.

In The Eye Of The Beholder
For all those doubting Thomasinas who don't think photography is art (why
are you reading Shutterbug?) I point you to Gene Nocon's website (www.genenocon.com).
Nocon lives in San Diego now but spent 15 years in London printing for Europe's
top photographers. After clicking on an intriguing photo to enter the site,
you're greeted by a group of thumbnails. Dragging your mouse across tiny
thumbnails reveals not just gallery titles, but also the fact that other photographers'
work is featured. I'll leave you to discover them on your own and focus
on Nocon's imagery.

Run don't walk to New Stuff to see dazzling portraits, imaginative landscapes,
and stylish fashion photographs that I wish I could make. There's more
fashion in Commercial that is just as amazing--this time featuring only
the clothes! The slide show format of New Stuff and Commercial changes to a
more conventional layout but the work never ceases to amaze. For the dazzling
images in "Body of Work" Nocon uses a Polaroid camera and available
light but the end product is digitally manipulated prints made on heavy watercolor
paper. Want to buy a print? Visit Shop for an interesting combination of images
and price list presentation. Nudity advisory: "Body of Work" and
Shop contains depictions of artistic nudity. If that offends you please don't
visit.